Telangana Rashtra Samithi president and chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao might be claiming that he is going to form a federal front as an alternative to the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party at the national level, but many people doubt that his objective is primarily to weaken the Congress so that it would help the BJP.
It was quite evident from the way Telangana stayed away from the second meeting of like-minded states on fiscal federalism held at Amaravati on Monday.
Telangana finance minister Etela Rajender said he had got the invitation but was not going to the meeting. He did not cite any reasons for the same. Obviously, he did not the approval from boss KCR.
The absence of Telangana at the meeting was quite surprising, because it was only the other day at the TRS plenary that KCR had raised his voice over the hegemony of the Centre over the states on financial issues.
He accused the Centre of trying to control the states and was depriving them of adequate finances so that they have to go the Centre with a begging bowl every time.
He even demanded that the concept of concurrent list should be done away with by amending the constitution.
The Centre should not interfere in the state’s issues like laying of rural roads, education, health and drinking water.
These were the same issues that were discussed at the conference on fiscal federalism at Amaravati.
The states which attended the meeting all raised concern over the Centre’s hegemony over states and its attempt to penalise the performing states.
All the states which attended the conference were non-BJP states, including a couple of the Congress-ruled states. But Delhi is not a pro-Congress state – it is ruled by Aam Admi Party and West Bengal ruled by Trinamool Congress party and both these parties are friendly with the TRS as well.
But since all of them are strongly opposing the BJP, KCR thought if the Telangana attends the conference, it would anger the BJP at the Centre, which he does not want.
It clearly shows the TRS had been discreetly working for the BJP agenda and it has now come in the open!
